This is exactly right.

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We know people do evil things, but we don't really understand the many faces of evil.

In 1871, it took journalist Hamilton Freeman just a few minutes to figure out that Edward

Ruloff was not a spiritual man.

The journalist told himself, this man praised to science, not God.

Freeman was sitting knee to knee with a killer who had ignored so many tenants at the Bible

for decades, but Edward Ruloff did believe in one biblical theme, vengeance.

His real troubles began almost 30 years earlier when he was still a member of the Scott family.

In the spring of 1845, there didn't seem to be a need for vengeance yet, because Edward

Ruloff was actually happy for once.

After a year and a half of marriage, he and his 18-year-old wife Harriet weren't fighting

quite as much as they used to.

They had bigger priorities.

On April 12, Harriet gave birth to a little girl they named Pursilla after his mother.

Edward had made up with his brother-in-law after their last argument over Dr. Henry Bull.

William prayed that parenthood would somehow give Edward some peace, maybe more grounding.

He might actually be a good father.

And there was more promising news.

Edward planned to move his little family out west to Ohio for a new start.

He had been offered a position as the principal of a prestigious boys academy there.

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